Embracing

How to spell embracing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce embracing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embracing mean?

1. verbHolding someone closely in the arms, or warmly accepting and taking up an idea, change, or opportunity.

Embracing in a sentence

• The two old friends stood embracing on the platform before the train pulled away.

• The company is embracing remote work after years of resisting it.

Where does embracing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun bracchium, meaning 'arm', which gave Vulgar Latin a verb for the action of taking someone into the arms. That verb passed into Old French as embracier, built from the prefix em- (a form of in-, meaning 'in' or 'into') joined to brace, the word for the two arms. English adopted it in the 1300s, first in the literal sense of clasping a person to the chest, and later in the figurative sense of taking up an idea, cause, or opportunity warmly. The same bracchium root quietly survives in everyday words like 'bracelet' (a little ornament for the arm) and the 'brace' that supports or holds things together. The spelling keeps the soft -ace before -ing, which is exactly where writers sometimes hesitate, since the c is sounded like an s yet the silent e is dropped when -ing is added.

How the word is built

• em- (in, into)
• brace (from Latin bracchium: arm)
• -ing (present participle suffix)